PATCH CLAMP TECHNIQUEAND

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY TECHNIQUES.

BYMahender.K

M.Pharm 1st yr 1st sem.Srikrupa institute of pharmaceutical sciences,

Velkatta,kondapak,medak.Andhra pradesh.Under the guidance of

Dr. T.Shivaraj gouda M.pharm.,PhDH.O.D. (Pharmacology)

Patch clamp technique•The patch clamp technique is a laboratory technique in electrophysiology that allows the study of single or multiple ion channels in cells.•The technique can be applied to a wide variety of cells, but is especially useful in the study of excitable cells such as neurons, cardiomyocytes, muscle fibers and pancreatic beta cells.•It can also be applied to the study of bacterial ion channels in specially prepared giant spheroplasts.•The patch clamp technique is a refinement of the voltage clamp.•Erwin Neher and Bert Sakmann developed the patch clamp in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This discovery made it possible to record the currents of single ion channels for the first time, proving their involvement in fundamental cell processes such as action potential conduction. Neher and Sakmann received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1991 for this work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Patch_clamp.svg

• Patch clamp recording uses, as an electrode, a glass micropipette that has an open tip diameter of about one micrometre, a size enclosing a membrane surface area or "patch" that often contains just one or a few ion channel molecules.

• The interior of the pipette is filled with a solution matching the ionic composition of the bath solution, as in the case of cell-attached recording, or the cytoplasm for whole-cell recording.

• A chlorided silver wire is placed in contact with this solution and conducts electric current to the amplifier.

• The investigator can change the composition of this solution or add drugs to study the ion channels under different conditions.

• The micropipette is pressed against a cell membrane and suction is applied to assist in the formation of a high resistance seal between the glass and the cell membrane (a "gigaohm seal" or "gigaseal," since the electrical resistance of that seal is in excess of a gigaohm).

• Unlike traditional two-electrode voltage clamp recordings, patch clamp recording uses a single electrode to record currents.

• A bacterial spheroplast patched with a glass pipette

• Variations:1. Cell-attached or on-cell patch2. Inside-out patch.3. Whole-cell recording or whole-cell patch.4. Outside-out patch.5. Perforated patch.6. Loose patch.

• Cell-attached or on-cell patch:• The electrode is sealed to the patch of membrane, and

the cell remains intact.• This allows for the recording of currents through single

ion channels in that patch of membrane, without disrupting the interior of the cell.

• For ligand-gated ion channels or channels that are modulated by metabotropic receptors, the neurotransmitter or drug being studied is usually included in the pipette solution, where it can contact what had been the external surface of the membrane.

• Inside-out patch:• After the gigaseal is formed, the micropipette is quickly

withdrawn from the cell.• Thus ripping the patch of membrane off the cell, leaving the

patch of membrane attached to the micropipette, and exposing the intracellular surface of the membrane to the external media.

• This is useful when an experimenter wishes to manipulate the environment at the intracellular surface of ion channels.

• For example, channels that are activated by intracellular ligands can then be studied through a range of ligand concentrations.

• Whole-cell recording or whole-cell patch:• Whole-cell recordings, in contrast, involve recording currents

through multiple channels at once, over the membrane of the entire cell.

• The electrode is left in place on the cell, but more suction is applied to rupture the membrane patch, thus providing access to the intracellular space of the cell.

• Advantage: Is that the larger opening at the tip of the patch clamp electrode provides lower resistance and thus better electrical access to the inside of the cell.

• Disadvantage:Is that the volume of the electrode is larger than the cell, so the soluble contents of the cell's interior will slowly be replaced by the contents of the electrode. This is referred to as the electrode "dialyzing”the cell's contents.

• Outside-out patch:• After the whole-cell patch is formed, the electrode

can be slowly withdrawn from the cell, allowing a bulb of membrane to bleb out from the cell.

• When the electrode is pulled far enough away, this bleb will detach from the cell and reform as a convex membrane on the end of the electrode (like a ball open at the electrode tip). with the original outside of the membrane facing outward from the electrode.

• Single channel recordings are possible in this conformation if the bleb of membrane is small enough.

• Outside-out patching gives the experimenter the opportunity to examine the properties of an ion channel when it is isolated from the cell, and exposed to different solutions on the extracellular surface of the membrane.

• Advantage:The experimenter can perfuse the same patch with different solutions.

• Disadvantage:It is more difficult to accomplish, as more steps are involved in the patching process.

• Perforated patch:In this variation of whole-cell recording, the experimenter forms the gigohm seal, but does not use suction to rupture the patch membrane.

• Instead, the electrode solution contains small amounts of an antifungal or antibiotic agent, such as amphothericin-B, nystatin, or gramicidin.

• As the antibiotic molecules diffuse into the membrane patch, they form small perforations in the membrane, providing electrical access to the cell interior.

• Advantage: Reduces the dialysis of the cell that occurs in whole-cell recordings.

• Disadvantages:1) The access resistance is higher, relative to whole-cell, due to the

partial membrane occupying the tip of the electrode (access resistance being the sum of the electrode resistance and the resistance at the electrode-cell junction). This will decrease electrical access and thus decrease current resolution, increase recording noise, and magnify any series resistance error.

2) It can take a significant amount of time for the antibiotic to perforate the membrane (10–30 minutes, though this can be reduced with properly shaped electrodes).

3) The membrane under the electrode tip is weakened by the perforations formed by the antibiotic and can rupture. If the patch ruptures, the recording is then in whole-cell mode, with antibiotic contaminating the inside of the cell.

• Loose patch:• Loose patch clamp is different in that it employs a loose seal

rather than the tight gigaseal used in the conventional technique.• Advantages: Is that the pipette that is used can be repeatedly

removed from the membrane after recording, and the membrane will remain intact.

• This allows for repeated measurements in a variety of locations on the same cell without destroying the integrity of the membrane.

• Disadvantage: Is that the resistance between the pipette and the membrane is greatly reduced, allowing current to leak through the seal.